Letters, Week of May 7, 2014

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To The Editor:
Re: “Number Crunching at the Core of Affordable Housing Squeeze” (news, April 23):
The eviction process of the middle-income citizens has been going on for decades. If you build yourself from “poor” to middle-income like I have, and kept an honest income due to old-fashioned hard work, my own city of NY has no protection for me. As corporations take advantage of “downsizing” whether they have to or not, more work is plowed on us for less pay and forces us to “downsize” too. I have to leave my beautiful and spacious apartment for a studio, as I cannot afford the rent anymore.
Corporate criminals all get their “breaks” and bonuses as the people who keep the corporations going get nothing. Nothing. I am a Native New Yorker who is not so proud of how the city and country is being run by major corporations whose only motive is greed. Sadly it appears as just a matter of time before we sink.Carlos Leon

Housing Dilemma’s Me Decade roots

To The Editor:
Re: “Number Crunching at the Core of Affordable Housing Squeeze” (news, April 23):
This is an old story. The handwriting has been on the wall since the ’80s. Is this city just coming to consciousness? Where has everyone been, as households have been left out of the housing market for many years?

Gloria Sukenick
Horses, not cars!
To The Editor:
Re: “Ban Horse Carriages; Keep Citi Bikes” (editorial, April 23):
I’ve been watching from the sidelines, while the conversation about Mayor de Blasio’s wrongheaded push to send New York City’s carriage horses away to certain doom has raged on. I’ve been hoping the mayor would come to his senses and drop this senseless campaign. With ever-more ridiculous measures being sought by the mayor to achieve his unwarranted aim, I’m now writing to add my dissenting voice against his plan.
My family has been involved for many years in animal rescue and animal rights activities, including the care and welfare of horses. So I come from a position of concern, not casual comment. I firmly believe that ridding the city of its carriage horses and replacing them with one or another unnecessary gewgaw would not promote the horses’ welfare at all.
New York City has a very strong set of regulations guarding carriage horses’ health, safety and welfare. For example, these regulations require sufficiently large, clean, comfortable, temperature- and ventilation-controlled, vermin-free stalls. Also, there are weather restrictions on operation, required work-hour limits and breaks, required regular veterinarian visits, grooming guidelines and provision of fresh food and water, not to mention frequent government inspections and a requisite five weeks off per year.
Drivers are required to undergo training and also are subject to the same strong regulations. They have deep and affectionate bonds with their horses and treat them with care.
This is in contrast to an uncertain future the horses would face if banned. At this economically pressing time, when increasing numbers of horses are being abandoned, equine rescue and retirement facilities have less money and room to accommodate them. Thousands of horses are fending for themselves and starving in the process or being sent to slaughterhouses. No magic bullet has been cited to prevent this for the carriage horses.
As for the proposal to replace the horses with electric vintage cars, this totally flies in the face of Mayor de Blasio’s “Vision Zero” initiative to make New York safer for pedestrians. If there’s one thing we don’t need, it’s extra cars in any form to further congest our streets and Central Park and cause more fatal crashes or injuries.
All this is now compounded by the news that this thoughtless proposal may well be rooted in a move to facilitate a real estate deal, one that would free the valuable property where the carriage horses reside for more unneeded and high-priced development.
One can only hope that Mayor de Blasio will rethink this untenable plan and keep the carriage horses in New York City, perhaps in Central Park. It’s where they belong — where they’re well-loved, well-cared for and fervently wanted.Shirley SecundaSecunda is chairperson, Community Board 2 Traffic and Transportation Committee

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